Kane Mountain
February 9th, 2019


11:12a My adventure began at 10:46a this morning. I decided to go on a hike with the Adirondack Mountain Club up Kane Mountain. My first hike with anyone from the club so it was a bit awkward at first and I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I was expecting it to be a group of 12 and for them to all be mid 20s to late 30s. I was wrong. It was just 4 of us and I was the only guy and the only one under 50. I wasn’t complaining, they were obviously more experienced than I was and had great stories to share. Their names were Cris, Lori, and Nola. The eldest of them being Nola. When we started climbing Nola was going at a crawling pace, which is fine, everyone should move at whatever pace makes them comfortable, this was just a really big change from hiking with Francis and Eli who are ultra hikers and almost run up the mountain. I was content with going at whatever pace they wanted to but Lori pulled ahead and I followed with her. As we were pulling away from the group Lori made a joke about how Nola has hiked everywhere, even in Antarctica. I didn’t think much of it and thought she was joking. We just stopped for a moment to relax and take in the view from where we were. The ground seemed pretty solid and frozen up until I left the actual trail to go pee. I was post-holing up to my waist in some spots which didn’t make peeing very easy but I got by. Before we stopped Lori told me that Nola actually has hiked in Antarctica and that all of the things I thought were jokes were actually true stories. Wow…

11:36a We were walking and in the distance, the trail lead to a dark, wooden cabin, so I shouted out “Look Lori a Cabin!” to which she replied “Yeah, and there is the firetower.” to which I replied where? She pointed into this thick patch of trees. I wasn’t able to see anything for a moment but then I looked up and saw the cabin of it. This firetower was hidden so well, it was maybe 10 yards away but I didn’t see it until we were right on top of it. Amazing! I laughed out loud at how oblivious I had been. The tower was huge and had the cabin nearby. Of course I am going to explore the firetower first.

11:45a I ran past Lori who walked off into the woods to explore a bit up the firetower and am now in the cabin. Above the trees you can see for miles and the wind blasts through the open windows at the top of the tower. When walking up the tower I hit my head on the cabin, as I always do and got inside. There is still metal pipes from when there was actual instruments inside the tower. Very little graffiti inside of the cabin, which is a lot different from Belfry which was practically covered in it. It is so peaceful up here. I love these fire towers.

12:01p After taking tons of pictures, Lori came partway up the tower. She didn’t want to come into the cabin because she was afraid the wind would be to cold. I coaxed her up into the cabin, because you can’t experience the fire towers without climbing into the cabin, it's just not right. We took a few more pictures and descended the tower. Nola and Cris still hadn’t made it up yet so we got concerned and started backtracking. Not even three minutes into backtracking we found them climbing at their own pace. So I ran back up the mountain because I wanted to explore that cabin! Upon arrival I realized it was covered in graffiti, inside and out, the windows were removed and the door had been kicked into the main bedroom. The porch had been partially destroyed and the fireplace had been partially separated from the walls. It was such a sad sight to see. Walking into the Cabin, you entered the main Den area. This is where the fireplace is. There is snow on the floor and windows have been removed, then boarded up and most of the boards have been removed. There are no standing doors. The doorway on your left lead to a small room and the door on your right lead to the master bedroom where the door to the house had been laid out on the floor. The porch overlooks the nearby lake and would have been a cozy place to live when the fire tower was in operation.

1:04p Well, we had lunch at the summit, I had a bologna and swiss cheese sandwich and the ladies had some granola bars. We are now back down at our car with a rather uneventful trip down. This was an amazing hike, definitely in my top 5 favorites. I would do it again in a heartbeat.